Pathways

Hour ONE

"Fine, hyung. Are you ready for this because I have no idea how to tell this story? Maybe that is why I never did." Jungkook's mind ran counter-clockwise as he thought and he felt like a grave robber. He was playing with a shovel in the graveyard filled with all his memories and he exhumed them with a mixture between terror and serenity.

Yoongi was right. He hadn't gotten better. If anything, the situation had gotten worse as time progressed because Jungkook started second-guessing himself and his actions. He wondered if he remembered certain things correctly or if his recollection of all the layers of memory corrupted the truth. All in all, he was left only with whatever he felt and filtered without being able to guarantee it was the unspoiled truth.

The prejudice wouldn't let go of him. Time wouldn't stop so he could think things over as if there were more scenarios which he needed to replay in his mind, as if he hadn't exhausted all of them during the months following his return. He was lucky to get the time he got but a grandfather clock chimed the ending, in the distance.

He closed his eyes and listened. No tragic narrator could explain the events in his stead. He had to do it even if he felt unable to pick up a beginning. "What do you want to know?" he asked with a hint of arrogance, defending the last shards of his broken persona. It scared him that he was ready to talk. All the months he pondered were an indefinite preparation for the inevitable yet was he going into the void completely blank.

"When did you guys meet?" Yoongi answered sternly, very straightforward. He hoped that receiving the information from the start would give him a good overview of the progression of events because Yoongi knew better than to take Kook's words for granted. The boy was a silent mess, always smiling and hiding, never allowing his voice to attract too much attention. Things were about to change in an empty restaurant, after hours.

Out of the blue, Jungkook chuckled calling Yoongi back to reality from his analyzing of Jungkook's shivering hands on the glass. "Armani showcase..." he answered with a smile so sad that Yoongi almost looked away. There could be no retreat, however. The battle drums started and Jungkook was running in the first line, Yoongi wasn't about to back down.

The hyung nodded unconvinced. "Armani... alright..." he registered out loud. It wasn't impossible. It was surprising but not impossible.

The maknae did not look at him, every muscle in his body betraying how afraid he was. He stared at the bar in the distance and he lost focus for a second as if he could almost hear the music and the flashes going off that evening. "The amateur film project was sponsored by Armani. As part of our schedule, we got invited to an haute couture show to pick up frames, mingle. It was a glossy affair for all of us and most of us where underdressed or badly dressed compared to everybody else but nobody really cared since baggy streetwear was a trend or so I was told..." Jungkook answered and snapped his neck. It was more for comfort himself, to try to relieve the pressure that his own words were burdening him with. He wondered why release was not coming.

"He was there..." Jungkook followed as his mind individualized the single memory of Taehyung with his back at him, working while a large camera hid his face. "I only really noticed him when I realized he was Asian." Jungkook giggled bitterly.

It was beyond awkward for Yoongi to see him so relaxed and smiling. He expected seriousness and darkness but he got light, bittersweet chuckles. Like a madman, Jungkook was hanging himself on a tree, upside down, turning all that Yoongi predicted around.

"Jimin told me he had fluffy white hair. I didn't know who he was. His hair was blond, neatly cut. He must have had changed it without Jimin knowing." He added.

"Didn't he recognize you?" Yoongi pressed on, convinced Jimin just have had sent Taehyung a photo of Jungkook at some point before the maknae's departure but he received a head shake signaling that Tae wasn't that observant.